Control signaling in a beamforming system

Abstract

A method of control signaling in a beamforming system is proposed. A user equipment (UE) receives control beam transmission from a base station using a set of control beams in a beamforming network. Each control beam comprises a set of DL control resource blocks, a set of UL control resource blocks, and an associated set of beamforming weights. The UE selects a control beam for establishing a connection with the base station. The UE then performs random access with the base station using the selected control beam.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 receiving, by a user equipment (UE), a plurality of control beam transmissions from a base station using a set of control beams in a Millimeter Wave (mmWave) beamforming mobile communication network, wherein each control beam comprises a set of downlink (DL) control resource blocks, a set of uplink (UL) control resource blocks, and an associated set of beamforming weights based on preconfigured control beam configuration, wherein each resource block comprises radio resources on a two-dimensional resource grid of both time domain and frequency domain; 
 selecting a control beam from the plurality of control beam transmissions based on the preconfigured control beam configuration for establishing a connection with the base station; and 
 performing random access with the base station using the selected control beam, wherein the UE derives allocated DL and UL resource blocks and a selected set of beamforming weights associated with the selected control beam for the random access, wherein the UE performs the random access with the base station via the derived UL and DL control resource blocks of the selected control beam, and wherein the UE transmits over the derived UL control resource blocks and the selected set of beamforming weights for UL transmission and receives over the derived DL resource blocks using spatially reciprocal beamforming weights for DL reception. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein a collection of the beamforming weights of the control beams creates a radiation pattern covering an entire service area of a cell provided by the base station. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the DL control resource blocks comprises a pilot part and a data part, and wherein the UE receives cell and beam identification information from the pilot part. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the DL control resource blocks comprises a pilot part and a data part, and wherein the UE receives control and traffic information from the data part. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UL control resource blocks comprises a pilot part and a data part, and wherein the UE transmits UE identification information via the pilot part. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UL control resource blocks comprises a pilot part and a data part, and wherein the UE transmits UE-specific control and traffic data via the data part. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE performs time, frequency, and spatial synchronization with the base station via the DL control resource blocks of the selected control beams. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE comprises multiple antennas for beamforming, and wherein a transmit beamforming weights in an UL control resource block is spatially reciprocal to a receiving beamforming weights in a corresponding DL control resource block. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the control beams are configured having repeatedly occurred control cycles. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the DL control resource blocks for different control beams in each control cycle are Time Division Multiplexed (TDM). 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the UL control resource blocks for different control beams in each control cycle are Spatial Division Multiplexed (SDM). 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the UE comprises two radio frequency chains for receiving one or more simultaneous control beam transmissions. 
     
     
       13. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 a radio frequency (RF) receiver that receives a plurality of control beam transmissions from a base station using a set of control beams in a Millimeter Wave (mmWave) beamforming mobile communication network, wherein each control beam comprises a set of downlink (DL) control resource blocks, a set of uplink (UL) control resource blocks, and an associated set of beamforming weights based on preconfigured control beam configuration, wherein each resource block comprises radio resources on a two-dimensional resource grid of both time domain and frequency domain; 
 a beam selection circuit that selects a control beam from the plurality of control beam transmissions based on the preconfigured control beam configuration for establishing a connection with the base station; and 
 a random access circuit that performs random access with the base station using the selected control beam, wherein the UE derives allocated DL and UL resource blocks and a selected set of beamforming weights associated with the selected control beam for the random access, wherein the UE performs the random access with the base station via the derived UL and DL control resource blocks of the selected control beam, and wherein the UE transmits over the derived UL control resource blocks and the selected set of beamforming weights for UL transmission and receives over the derived DL resource blocks using spatially reciprocal beamforming weights for DL reception. 
 
     
     
       14. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein a collection of the beamforming weights of the control beams creates a radiation pattern covering an entire service area of a cell provided by the base station. 
     
     
       15. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein the UE performs time, frequency, and spatial synchronization with the base station via the DL control resource blocks of the selected control beams. 
     
     
       16. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein the UE comprises multiple antennas for beamforming, and wherein a transmit beamforming weights in an UL control resource block is spatially reciprocal to a receiving beamforming weights in a corresponding DL control resource block. 
     
     
       17. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein the control beams are configured having repeatedly occurred control cycles. 
     
     
       18. The UE of  claim 17 , wherein the DL control resource blocks for different control beams in each control cycle are Time Division Multiplexed (TDM). 
     
     
       19. The UE of  claim 17 , wherein the UL control resource blocks for different control beams in each control cycle are Spatial Division Multiplexed (SDM). 
     
     
       20. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein the UE comprises two radio frequency chains for receiving one or more simultaneous control beam transmissions.